And now here I stand lost in a memory

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

Characters: Quistis, Elena, Blank
Progress: Ongoing
Summary: muh-muh-muh-memories
Location: Memoria
Date: February 1st, 1804
Warnings: None yet.



Quistis had just stepped past the gates of Garden when the sky suddenly burst, engulfing her in a pillar of light. In that split second, a feeling of fear gripped her stomach as the situation was all too familiar- was it the Time Compression again? Had Ultimecia made her way to Gaia? In an instant the world suddenly righted, but instead of standing before the village of Wutai as she had expected, Quistis found herself in a much more familiar environment.

“Balamb Garden?”

She stood still, momentarily shocked from the shifting of settings. So she had been rejected from Gaia for the second time. Was she not fit to remain with her friends and help them with their pursuits in the foreign world? Sighing, Quistis turned around with the intention of heading to her dorm when she noticed two unfamiliar faces- a blond female dressed in a suit and a male with a belt wrapped around his head. Quistis frowned, a hand nonchalantly dropped down to hover near the handle of her weapon in case she would need it.

“Who are you?” She asked them warily, her blue eyes glancing between the two strangers.

Comments

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

Okay... this was not Lindblum. What the Hell was going on? Had there been another one of those time jumps? Blank really hoped not - it was hard enough to find food as it was, without losing another few months without warning, and the Prima Vista? Months without polish... he'd only just got her shine back up to standard!

Where were they anyway? It was nowhere Blank recognised. Where they even still on Gaia? Balamb Garden? That's that the pretty woman had just said. Balamb? Never heard of it...

He lifted his head, looking over at Quistis. "I'm Blank."

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

The moment that the flash of light passed and Elena realized she wasn't where she had been moments before, her pistol was out and in her hand, her eyes narrowed as she surveyed the two people nearby and the...strange location they were in. She probably would've put the gun away, if not for the fact that the other woman was obviously getting ready to draw her own weapon.

"Elena," she answered the question after a moment. "How did we get here? We are we?"

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

The pistol that the female held in her hand raised some alarm, but Quistis kept her hand just hovered over her whip, not yet drawing the weapon. After a tense moment, she moved to cross her arms, taking another glance about their surroundings before answering.

"This is Balamb Garden. I assume that you both were previously on Gaia?"

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

Blank had made no attempt what-so-ever to reach for his dagger, instead he just watched the two women, arms folding across his chest.

At Quistis' question, he gave a nod. "Gaia born and bred... I take it that this... Balamb Garden... isn't on Gaia?" So where the Hell were they?

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

After a moment of consideration, Elena slipped her pistol back into her coat. "Yes, I was in Lindblum, this..." She frowned faintly. "I'm getting tired of this stuff, honestly. Are we on anotherworld?"

No, she doesn't particularly sound pleased.

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

Quistis nodded.

"This is my home world. I'm not sure how we got here, but--"

"Quisty, come on! You're late!"

She turned to face the source of the voice, a small apologetic smile spreading on her lips as she spotted Selphie waving from the entrance of the ballroom.

"Sorry, Selphie. I'll be right there."

It was as though the sight of Selphie caused Quistis to completely forget about her two new companions. Without another word, Quistis made her way towards the ballroom, where the celebration of their victory over Ultimecia was being held.

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

Blank rubbed at the back of his neck, arching an eyebrow. "Um... Who're you talking to? There's no one there..." Or at least no one Blank could see.

He turned to Elena, shrugging his shoulders. "Am I missing something here?"

SORRY!

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

Elena just frowned as the other woman was suddenly talking to nothing, and she glanced at Blank questioningly before turning back.

"You alright?" She asked, narrowing her eyes and moving a bit closer. The woman seemed to be seeing something. With a shrug, Elena moved to follow her. Quistis might be crazy, but she claimed this was her home.

"You don't see anything either, right?" She muttered at Blank.

no worries!

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

Upon her arrival to the celebration, Quistis was greeted by a chorus of cheers and greetings, mainly from the younger cadets. The new celebrity status that they had all acquired irked her somewhat, but she waved it off as soon as a familiar cowboy sidled up next to her.

"Check out my moves, Quistis!" He drawled out. Irvine seemed to let the music overtake him as he attempted something that looked vaguely like a dance, though Quistis wasn't sure it could qualify; she merely watched the taller male in amusement, a small smile on her lips.

"Obviously those ballroom lessons back at Galbadia didn't do you any good." She joked, shaking her head slightly.

Feeling as though someone was watching her, Quistis turned only to find a waving Selphie, her camcorder perched up and aimed directly at the pair. Caught off guard, Quistis straightened her posture before giving the camera a small nod and a wave. Not entirely sure what else to do, she merely continued to smile until Irvine fucked down away from the view of the camera and slowly rose, no doubt looking ridiculous as ever. Without warning, he slung his arm over Quistis' shoulders and pulled her close, smiling rather cheekily at Selphie all the while. Annoyed, she gave him a hard shove and shook him off, shaking her head before making her way over to a laughing Headmaster Cid who seemed to have caught the entire exchange.

"How are you, Headmaster Cid?" She asked the elder man warmly.

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

Blank stayed close to Elena's side. "I can't see a damned thing. It's like she's talking to air..." He really hoped he hadn't gotten stuck with a bunch of crazies, no matter how pretty they were...

"Um... Do you think she's hallucinating or just plain crazy?"

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

"Hoping for hallucation," Elena answered after a moment, watching the other woman talked to nothing. What she was saying made sense, given the context of where they were. It was like she was seeing a party that Elena and Blank hadn't been invited to.

"Probably crazy, though."

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

Quistis continued to converse with the Headmaster, laughing every now and then at his comments. When he looked over her shoulder to point at Selphie still following her with the camera, Quistis gave her a slightly exasperated smile, obviously not too thrilled with being caught on film.

In the corner of her eye, the blond noticed a figure standing off to the side, donned in a familiar black dress. Quistis straightened her posture as Matron approached, a slightly hesitant smile on her lips as she bowed towards the older woman.

"Matron..."

And just as Edea was just about to speak, both she and Cid slowly faded into nothing, giving Quistis quite a shock.

"Selphie, did you see--?"

Quistis had whipped her head around to ask if the brunette had seen the couple disappear, but Selphie was nowhere to be found either. Instead, she stood in the expansive hall with only Blank and Elena, the pair watching her with skeptical expressions.

"Where did they all go?"

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

Well, either the hallucination had finished, the drugs had worn off or the crazy had stopped. Blank folded his arms across his chest, shrugging his shoulders.

"We couldn't see anything apart from you..." He sighed. "Maybe we should keep moving and try to find a way back home?"

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

Elena didn't say anything for a moment as the tall woman came out of her daze, but once she asked them a question, the blonde just shrugged. "We didn't see anything but you. Talking to the air."

She nodded at Blank's idea, turning slowly. "Sure. But, ah...which way should we go?" Elena could take charge, but she preferred following some sort of orderly instructions. At least in unknown situations. "Anyone been...er...here? before?"

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

A slight blush crept onto her cheeks as Quistis imagined just how bizarre she must have looked to her two companions, conversing with thin air. Her mind slowly came out of its daze, and realization sunk into her stomach as she noticed exactly what she had experienced.

"It was a memory. The celebration ball that Garden held in honor of Ultimecia's defeat. I wonder why it felt so real..."

She shrugged it off and turned around, glancing around their surroundings. They were still inside the ballroom, but there was no point in staying any longer.

"The exit is over there. I guess we'll see if anyone else is still around, or if this place is completely deserted."

Leading the two to the doorway, the setting suddenly changed as soon as she stepped through the frame, causing her to let out a small gasp. Where were they now?

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

As the scenery changed, they were no longer in a ballroom, but on the deck of a large airship, a theatre ship to be more specific, surrounded by the Mist. "What?! The Prima Vista?!"

Baku and Marcus called him over; Marcus slung an arm around the redhead’s shoulder. "Well? What do you think, bro? She’s pretty amazing, huh?"

All the redhead youth could do was nod enthusiastically. It what the most amazing airship he had ever seen and he was stood on it, so close to the helm, almost touching it.

"You want to fly her?"

The boy’s eyes widened, him mouth falling open. "Really?! You’ll let me fly her? Really really? Aw Marcus! You’re the best, bro! The best!!"

[alwaysarookie.livejournal.com]

Elena was immediately alert again as the seen changed and now...the man was talking to nothing. Fun. Okay, the background itself shifting seemed to indicate that whatever was going on here didn't mean people were nuts. Okay. So it was magic.

She wrinkled her nose, but forced herself to relax faintly, turning to look at Quistis. "So do you have any idea what this is all about?"

[herownhero.livejournal.com]

It was a strange transition, switching from a ballroom setting to the deck of an airship. Taking a brief moment to glance around their new setting, she then crossed her arms as she tried to make sense of the situation. What was going on?

"I have no idea..." Quistis murmured her reply to Elena's question. She watched in confusion as Blank talked animatedly at nothing, her brows furrowing at the scene before her. "When we were back at Garden, I was experiencing one of my memories. Perhaps he's going through the same thing?"

[xredthespianx.livejournal.com]

As the images began to fade, Blank's shoulders slumped, a frown forming on his lips. "Oh..." It hadn't been real, but it had felt so real. He could even smell the polish used to keep the Prima Vista looking great and protect her wood.

He turned to his companions, rubbing at the ack of his neck sheepishly. No doubt he had looked as crazy as the woman had, talking to thin air. "Heh. A memory."